Hold the Phone—You’re Spending How Much Time on Hold?

The average American today lives to a ripe old age of 78. Seems like plenty of time to check everything off your bucket list, right? Not quite, according to new findings from Market Watch and mobile advertising analytics firm Marchex. That’s because the joint study conducted by both these organizations found that much of that time isn’t spent as well as we’d like.

In the new report, it was found that more than half of Americans said they spend 10 to 20 minutes every week on hold. In the grand scheme of things, this might not seem terrible. But those small increments of time add up quickly. Americans will spend more than 900 million hours waiting on hold this year, and every individual will dedicate a whopping 43 days out of their entire lives simply waiting to speak with a representative.

So what could you do with an extra 43 days? If you’ve ever wanted to take a coast-to-coast road trip around the United States, even the slowest driver would be able to do it—about a dozen times. If you’re lucky enough to have a rocket, you could even travel to the moon about 15 times.

Of course, most people don’t have their own personal rocket or even 43 consecutive days to use as they please. But this is an important lesson for contact center leaders nonetheless. Outdated organizations that haven’t yet committed to getting customers off hold are, in essence, telling consumers that they do not value their time.

In an era in which the strongest businesses are those with the greatest commitment to customer relationships, there’s no reason to subject your customers to the muzak anymore.

To more about how your contact center can get rid of busy signals with innovative contact center solutions, click here.

Chris is a 15-year creative services veteran, with a background in copywriting, content management and graphic design. She works with the Aspect marketing and product teams developing digital assets (like infographics and ebooks) to help businesses make smart customer contact decisions.